SELLING THE CENSUS

Many may think counting Americans is as boring as counting sheep, but the U.S. Bureau of the Census is out to change that for the millennium tally with some flash and ethnic diversity.

For the first time, the agency is giving the once-a-decade ritual a Madison Avenue makeover. In a radical departure, ad agencies that create perfume, clothes and beer commercials have been hired to come up with a $100 million campaign to pitch to Americans that being counted is hip.

For South Florida and the rest of the country, Census Day is not until April 1, 2000, when millions of census forms will be mailed out. But the high-powered public relations campaign to get every person living in America counted begins as early as next month with prime-time television spots.

"The idea is to make every American want to be counted and to increase the questionnaire return rate," said James F. Holmes, Atlanta-based regional director of the Bureau of the Census, who visited Miami last week.

In the last 20 years, Americans have taken to treating their census forms much like junk mail, he said. In 1990, only 65 percent of the nation's population returned their census forms, a decline from 75 percent in 1980.

The millions to be spent on advertising is only a fraction of the billions that will be spent on every aspect of counting Americans. The ads, however, are the heart of the push and will be a far cry from the public service ads -- free, but staid -- historically used by the government and often shown late at night.

The ad campaign, masterminded by Young & Rubicam Inc., will be tailor-made to capture the true face of America. The process is so specialized, Rubicam has hired four minority advertising firms to work on targeted, ethnic campaigns, making pitches to African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians and Eskimos.

For example, the American Indian commercials will link the census to a sense of heritage: "Generations are counting on this."

The ads aimed at blacks will intone: "This is our future. Don't leave it blank."

To get their point across, the ads will use humor, but also take a serious tone, promising illegal immigrants for example, that immigration officials will not come after them if they fill out the form. The census form is confidential. Not even the president can see it.

Despite the massive television campaign, getting an accurate count will be especially difficult in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, areas popular with immigrants, transients and migrant workers, said Lee Ann Franceschi, director for Florida Census 2000 in Tallahassee.

In Florida and the other 49 states, an accurate count represents money and power because the population determines federal funding and political representation.

Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, the statewide chairman of the Census' Complete Count Committee, said American Indians, children, blacks and Hispanics are among those historically undercounted in South Florida, dealing a financial blow to each county.

"The way it's been figured, every citizen missed represents $1,500 in lost federal money, then you multiply that by 10 for each year the census is not taken," Lieberman said.

The search for these hard-to-count citizens is already on.

In all three South Florida counties, Complete Count Committees and sub-committees began meeting monthly earlier this year, with outreach as their goal, Franceschi said. They will hire and train census takers and reach out to schools, places of worship and social groups in every community to help them find the under-counted.

Convincing illegal immigrants that taking part in the census will not lead to a knock on the door from immigration officials is among the biggest tasks for each county.

Edy Sanon, executive director of the Haitian-American Community Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, said Haitians are among those groups seriously undercounted. In Broward, the official count is nearly 14,000. A more accurate number is closer to 70,000, he said. "We are trying to reach out to everyone this time," Sanon said.

It won't be easy, he said. The challenge is convincing people that the census is confidential, said Sanon, a member of the county's Complete County Committee.

In Palm Beach County, Monica Mowbray, the county liaison to the Complete Count Committee, said the emphasis will be on western communities, such as Belle Glade, South Bay and Loxahatchee, where there are many migrant workers.

Palm Beach County census volunteers also will focus on counting some snowbirds, who may receive their census forms in South Florida, she said.

Educating Haitians and other newer arrivals about the census is the job of Daniela Henry, executive director of the Haitian American Community Council in Delray Beach.

"Ten years ago, there was no effort to educate Haitian refugees about the census. This time, all that's going to change and we should get a more accurate count," Henry said.

The current Haitian population count of 13,500 in Palm Beach County is a joke, she said. The real number is closer to 60,000, Henry said. Miami-Dade also is launching its own campaign to accurately count its large immigrant communities.

And that's where the ad campaign and outreach come in, their aim being to persuade Americans that sending back a completed form, or allowing a census taker into their home is good for their community.

Glossy ads also will appear on magazines and will be aired on radio.

The census will be taken between April 1 and Dec. 31 when the department has to hand over the count to the president. About 800,000 people nationwide will be hired for the task, mostly census takers.

The estimated number of Americans is 275 million people living in 120 million households.

Luisa Yanez can be reached at lyanez@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.